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Jimmy Nicholl has revealed the anguish of the morning he woke up to be told he was playing in an Old Firm Scottish Cup final, only for it never to materialise. Nicholl was a coach at Rangers at the time of the 1989 final when Walter Smith, then assistant manager, called him on matchday. ‘Walter asked me if I had been out the previous night, and I told him that I hadn’t been. He then told me that Richard Gough had been ill all night and I was playing. You should have seen me in front of the mirror doing star jumps. I was all excited. I still had to load all the players’ gear into the coach because Walter didn’t want a change to the routine — then, at the other end, Goughie suddenly said he was fit, though he never was. I didn’t even get on